I can't tell, SR has never been my strong suit, system-wise (I'm a CP2020 guy). I suspect the answer might be a "no", but the real question is whether that's part of the point.

Is it possible they might be trying to reduce the use of heavy armor by "runners"?

I don't think so.
The stated reason for the new edge system is that they removed all the situational modifiers like -2 for wind -1 for low light except when you have low light vision etc. And instead just compare who has the advantage of the two involved characters and give out edge.

I haven't read up much about it so far, but there seems to be a controversy about the source material heavily slanting towards portraying Shadowrunners as very much 'amoral criminals'. As opposed to 'criminals, but with a moral compass'.

So, uh, anyone knowing what's up with that? Do they want to avoid being accused of 'romanticising' crime or something?

I don't think so.
The stated reason for the new edge system is that they removed all the situational modifiers like -2 for wind -1 for low light except when you have low light vision etc. And instead just compare who has the advantage of the two involved characters and give out edge.

Figures. I just start working on learning 5E, and now there rolling out 6E. *Sighs*. Is this going to be a thing like we had before 5E D&D was rolled out were they announced it and it took forever to get it out in full?

I haven't read up much about it so far, but there seems to be a controversy about the source material heavily slanting towards portraying Shadowrunners as very much 'amoral criminals'. As opposed to 'criminals, but with a moral compass'.

So, uh, anyone knowing what's up with that? Do they want to avoid being accused of 'romanticising' crime or something?

I havent followed the lore much, just the summary of the crunch. But from the last few books and from what I heard so far I get more of a anarchist and "fight the system" spin for Shadowrunners.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sephirothsword117

Figures. I just start working on learning 5E, and now there rolling out 6E. *Sighs*. Is this going to be a thing like we had before 5E D&D was rolled out were they announced it and it took forever to get it out in full?

Well there will likely be the usual advanced fighting/magic/decking books that will come out later like in every SR edition.
So far the schedule is:
June:

Quickstart Rules / Beginner Box

Neo-anarchist Streetpedia, $34.99

July:

No Future, $49.99 (Already released as PDF, will be updated to contain 5E and 6E rules. Altthough the rules part of the book are about 5 pages...)

I haven't read up much about it so far, but there seems to be a controversy about the source material heavily slanting towards portraying Shadowrunners as very much 'amoral criminals'. As opposed to 'criminals, but with a moral compass'.

So, uh, anyone knowing what's up with that? Do they want to avoid being accused of 'romanticising' crime or something?

Shadowrun is a cyberpunk game, therefore a "punk" game so there is a theme of "fighting the man" or "the corrupt power". So This idea carries over into criminals that might have ideals especially in a world where megacorporations have taken over and haven't made the world better by doing so.

That said shadowrunners are criminals for hire, they commit crimes no way around it. In the course of committing crimes, they harm people, they destroy property and they create a ripple effect of the results of the jobs they take.

No accurate portrayal of what shadowrunners would be like can get around this and since what is usually the start of an adventure is someone hiring the characters to commit a crime. In other words the lure of the promise of money, if they commit a crime.

So yeah, many many shadowrunners would be amoral criminals for hire. Does that mean players have to be, or that there isn't plenty lore showing shadowrunners that do have a code? No, there's plenty of fluff to run the gamut on that spectrum, however while the spectrum exists the harshness of the setting necessitates, if to accurately describe it that yes many times amorality is the order of the day even if it isn't the case of the player characters and their allies.

Honestly? I don't see where there's a need to say Shadowrunners are Amoral or largely Amoral. 3 hats, 4 Play Styles to cross reference with those hats. White Hat. Grey Hat. Black Hat. Hackers in the real world often fall into these three category's. Just agree to which of these your going to be. White hat? Fine. GM and players agree to generally hit targets that have it coming, and keep low to no body count as a mode of operations. Grey Hat? GM agrees to make sure targets have it coming, but you have room to do some questionable things in getting the job done or alternatively, to just have a moral dilemma about the target in the first place, or hell, to just be strictly business, not above a massive body count or property damage, but maybe not inclined to use it as your first course of action to get the job done. Black hat? Yeah now you can be an Amoral Criminal.

Then you have play styles to factor in. Black Trench Coat, Brown Suit, Red Jumpsuit and Pink Mohawk. Each get's progressively less based on intelligence and dealing with computers/magic/talking to people in a skilled manner and more interested in shooting, kung fu, sword fighting, blowing stuff up and general action movie shenanigans to get the job done. And it's not THAT hard to explain around the moral conundrums of it.

Hell, that's one of the aspects of the setting I find appealing. Sure, you CAN go Sin City or Punisher or "Hey, what happens when Joker, Hannible Lector and Jigsaw team up with Saruman The White post corruption!", but you can just as easily play a Magi-Cyber-Punk Burn Notice if that's your fancy, or play it like it's an 80's or 90's action movie, but with either rubber bullets or an agreement that anyone your shooting at/punching out/sword fighting with is understood in character ahead of time to be a horrible person who's got it coming. There are more than just Mega Corps in the world after all, there are multiple large and very bad news Mob organizations, LOT'S of smaller corps that can be as benevolent or horrific in there mode of operations as the GM/Players wish, small sub factions within megacorps that can be full of very, very, very, very bad people, and no shortage of various flavors of smaller time street gangs that can be VERY bad news as well. It's NOT hard to come up with bad people to have as antagonists for your runners if you can be bothered to put in a few hours of skimming the core setting book and maybe five minutes of thinking after that. And "I read the core rule book once and though for five minutes." is NOT unreasonable as an expectation for either a player OR a GM in most any system.

Honestly? I don't see where there's a need to say Shadowrunners are Amoral or largely Amoral. 3 hats, 4 Play Styles to cross reference with those hats. White Hat. Grey Hat. Black Hat. Hackers in the real world often fall into these three category's. Just agree to which of these your going to be. White hat? Fine. GM and players agree to generally hit targets that have it coming, and keep low to no body count as a mode of operations. Grey Hat? GM agrees to make sure targets have it coming, but you have room to do some questionable things in getting the job done or alternatively, to just have a moral dilemma about the target in the first place, or hell, to just be strictly business, not above a massive body count or property damage, but maybe not inclined to use it as your first course of action to get the job done. Black hat? Yeah now you can be an Amoral Criminal.

Then you have play styles to factor in. Black Trench Coat, Brown Suit, Red Jumpsuit and Pink Mohawk. Each get's progressively less based on intelligence and dealing with computers/magic/talking to people in a skilled manner and more interested in shooting, kung fu, sword fighting, blowing stuff up and general action movie shenanigans to get the job done. And it's not THAT hard to explain around the moral conundrums of it.